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The Amazon River is responsible for carrying one fifth of the world's fresh water into the salt oceans, more than any other single river.

This river is also the widest river in the world; 6.8 miles from bank to bank.

Nearly all the water that falls into the northern rainforests of South America washes into the Amazon, making the river swell to its record size.

The Amazon river is home to some amazing creatures. The largest freshwater fish in the world, the arapaima, which can weigh as much as 440 pounds, is found only in the Amazon.

The piranha, the most ferocious fish in the world, is also native to the Amazon. Most species of piranha travel around by themselves most of the time. Only at certain times of the year do they get-together in huge schools, making them dangerous to people and other animals in the river. A single piranha has a painful bite, but is not deadly by itself. The jaws of the fish are so sharp that natives living on the banks of the Amazon can catch the fish and use the jaws as scissors!

The giant anaconda lives in and around the Amazon as well. They are the largest snakes in the world, with the biggest being over 29 feet long, and are capable of slithering along the ground, climbing trees and swimming.

Anacondas are not poisonous; instead of venom, they use their powerful bodies to crush their prey or hold them under water until they drown. The anaconda's digestive system works very slowly. If the anaconda has a large meal, like an entire sheep, it can go for months without getting hungry.

During the rainy season, the Amazon floods and rises as much as thirty feet above its dry season levels. Forests near the river are totally submerged, and the leaves, fruit and insects that get washed into the river during the flooding keep the river's creatures alive.

Little fish eat the debris from the flooded forests, and the fish are eaten by bigger creatures, such as the Amazon River dolphin. The river dolphin is now a threatened species because of the loss of trees along the banks of the Amazon. Less debris gets into the river to feed the small fish, and then there are not enough fish to feed the dolphins.

The source of the Amazon River has only recently been discovered. In the year 2000, explorers using satellite photos and global positioning satellites claimed that they had found the start of the Amazon as a small stream flowing from the mountain called Nevado Mismi in Peru. From there on out, countless other streams flowing into it, called tributary rivers, add to the Amazon, making it into a monster of a river by the time it reaches the Atlantic Ocean.